Work Text:
The second thing Toshirou woke up to that morning, was the all too familiar smell of dog breath.
Toshirou blinks once, then twice, as his vision gets accustomed to the darkness. Then he looks around the cavity of flesh and muscles his head was residing inside.
He almost sighs, then remembers not to. He learnt from the first time Sadaharu ate his head that he shouldn't waste too much air.
The first time Sadaharu ate his head was a disaster, to say the least. No matter how much Gintoki tried to pull him out or Kagura tried to make Sadaharu let go, he just wouldn't. Toshirou, the idiot he was, kept screaming at Gintoki from the inside to get him out of there quickly. It took all of his willpower back then to not throw up inside the mouth while breathing in the sheer rotten smell of food.
He doesn't know how much time passed, but it was long enough that he eventually passed out. Gintoki later told him that he was out for almost an hour, and that they tried everything to wake him up. Kagura apparently even dangled him from the balcony by his feet.
That whole day, Gintoki laughed at and made fun of him for being a samurai that passed out from dog breath. Toshirou snapped at him that he would like to see him trying to stay awake in a small space without air.
Back in the present, Toshirou remained calm. Even though he was particularly eaten by the giant dog in his sleep.
"I'm awake now, Sadaharu," he says into the mouth while trying to inhale as little as possible. "You can let go now."
A few seconds passed and Toshirou's head was still inside the mouth.
"Sadaharu, please. Your mouth stinks."
Thankfully, his hands were outside this time, so he takes the chance to raise them up, and when he feels the soft fur beneath his fingertips, he immediately starts stroking.
As if on cue, Sadaharu releases his head. Toshirou barely had a moment to breathe in the sweet fresh air, when a tongue started licking all over his face. Toshirou closes his eyes, face scrunching at the feeling of the wet appendage dragging over his face. But then, Sadaharu starts licking a ticklish spot under his chin, and he couldn't hold in the laughter inside his chest.
"Alright, alright, stop" he chuckles and tries to push Sadaharu away. Keyword: tries. Sadaharu is a massive dog that probably weighs tons and Toshirou has to use all of his strength to push him away. Which isn't much, considering his mind was still in the after-sleep haze.
He finally pushes Sadaharu away. (With his own strength. Sadaharu definitely didn't move back on his own. Nope.) He tries to wipe off the saliva of his face, but his hand gets covered in it instead. He mock-glares at Sadaharu for it but Sadaharu just happily stares at him, panting with his tongue out.
Toshirou's mouth twitches, then his lips curve into a fond smile. He raises a hand to pet Sadaharu again and Sadaharu leans into the touch.
"Morning."
"Arf!" Sadaharu barks, his tale wagging behind him.
"It's just the two of us today." Toshirou says in the quiet apartment.
Usually, when people count, they start from one and then count the rest of the numbers.
Toshirou doesn't know why he didn't start the story with what was the first thing that woke him up. Did the author do it for plot purposes? He doesn't know.
But the first thing Toshirou woke up to in the early morning, was a pair of lips lightly pressing against his temple.
Toshirou stirs awake at the touch and unconsciously grabs an arm. "Where're you going?" he mumbles sleepily, not opening his eyes.
A warm body leans over Toshirou in response, and familiar lips kiss his temple again. "I told you, I have a job today." Gintoki whispers into his ear.
Toshirou, frankly, doesn't care. Even though he should since he, out of all people, knows how important work is. But being in a relationship with Gintoki tended to make him a bit selfish, and that's why all he wanted right now, was for Gintoki to come back to their futon.
Toshirou turns to lay on his back, and opens his eyes to sleepily look at Gintoki. "Don't care. Stay." he breathes out and tries to tug Gintoki down.
Gintoki only looks at him with amusement and fondness in his red eyes and Toshirou definitely doesn't melt at the look. He doesn't.
"I see what you're trying to do here," Gintoki brings up his knuckles and brushes it against Toshirou's cheek.
"Hmm?"
"You're trying to seduce me back to bed."
Toshirou actually didn't think to do that. But if it's what will keep Gintoki here, then he's willing to use that card.
Toshirou stretches his arms overhead and arches his back, then smirks at Gintoki with half lidded eyes. "Is it working?"
Gintoki's pupils dilate and he leans down, brushing his lips against Toshirou's, "Too well," he murmurs into his mouth before kissing him. Toshirou almost sighs into the kiss, then tries to use that moment to drag Gintoki down to bed. Sensing his intentions, Gintoki pulls back from him and rests his forehead against Toshirou.
"But I still have to go."
Toshirou huffs, scowling tiredly at Gintoki. "Just don't forget to come to the restaurant tonight. Tell the kids that it has Kobe beef too. If you come late, the Shinsengumi will eat them all."
Gintoki breathes out a laugh and pecks his lips. "So the tax thieves also steal meals from others?"
"Then I guess you have to finish your job faster."
Gintoki snorts then leans down to kiss him again. He pulls back and whispers, "Bastard." then leans back and stands up to leave.
"Jackass." Toshirou mumbles back. He stares after Gintoki's broad back leaving the room before going back to sleep.
"Did he tell you what kind of job it was?" Otose asks him, while taking a drag from her cigarette.
Toshirou exhales a cloud of smoke, eyes looking over the bottles of alcohol on rows of shelves. "He said it was a delivery to the outskirts of the city."
Otose hums and looks at him thoughtfully. "Must be important, if he didn't say the details."
Toshirou shrugs in response. To be honest, he wasn't all that worried. The kids were with Gintoki to keep him in line. Gintoki also didn't usually kept secrets him from for long. If it was something important, he would find out eventually.
"So what's the name of the restaurant you're going tonight?" Otose asks, probably in an attempt to distract him. While Toshirou didn't need it much, he was grateful for the fact that she did.
"San San Kudo. It's a new place that opened up a month ago." he says, tapping the ashes of his cigarette in the ashtray beside him.
"San San Kudo." Otose repeats it, enunciating each word. She furrowed her eyebrows and repeated it again. "Now where have I heard that before?" she muttered to herself.
"It's pretty popular. You must've heard it from somebody else."
"No, I feel like I've heard it way before it got popular." Otose insists. Out of nowhere, She shivers and rubs her arms. "Oh dear."
"What?" Toshirou asked hesitantly.
"I just got an ominous feeling. Something might happen at your party tonight." Otose said with a grave look on her face.
Toshirou doesn't say anything for a few seconds, then he chuckles. "Since when did you become a seer, granny?"
"Oi! I'm serious, you brat! Whenever I get this feeling, something happens!"
Before Toshirou could respond, they both heard the sound of a car honking from outside.
"Well, I'm off." Toshirou pushes back his seat and stands up, then looks to his side at Sadaharu. "Sadaharu, lets go."
"Arf!" Sadaharu barks and stands up, walking over to his side.
"Take care of yourself tonight." Otose tells him, with a troubled look on her face.
"It'll be fine, nothing will happen." Toshirou tells her as walks towards the door. He starts pushing the sliding doors open when Otose calls out to him again.
"You sure about that? Crazier things happened before."
Toshirou's hands freeze in their pushing. The granny was right, since this is Gintama, the show of horrible gags and dark humor. But it's also a fanfiction, so nothing too crazy would happen, right?
"It'll be fine." He repeats loudly, reassuring himself, then he opens the door.
He steps one foot outside when he suddenly gets yanked back by his yukata. A flash of light followed by the sound of an explosion came from the front of the snack house. For a second, Toshirou stares with shock, then he staggers to his feet and dashes outside. Once he was outside, he stared at the charred, smoking spot he was standing on a moment ago. He raises his head and narrows his eyes at the person who just tried to kill him.
"Happy birthday, Hijikata-san." Sougo deadpans, his bazooka propped on his shoulder. There was still smoke coming out of it.
Toshirou glowers at Sougo. "You can't even let me catch a break on my birthday?"
"Why, what are you talking about, Hijikata-san?" Sougo drawls, "I’m just happy you’re turning one year older. I’m jumping with joy here. I’ll even dance for you if you want. I recently learned this particular dance with my bazooka for you. Do you want to see it?"
Before Toshirou could say no, he absolutely doesn't want to see it, Sougo aims his bazooka at him again. "Alright So you just stand still while I dance, 'kay? Don't move-" he suddenly gets cut off by Sadaharu chomping his head.
Toshirou stares with sadistic glee and fondness as Sadaharu proceeds to start throwing Sougo around like a ragged doll.
But deep down, Toshirou was starting to think that the granny was right.
Soon, the day passed and turned into evening, the time for the Shinsengumi -plus Sadaharu- to go to San San Kudo.
When they arrived, they waited outside for Kondo-san to check their reservation and when he did, they all walked inside the restaurant in a single messy file. Toshirou was about to walk inside next to Sadaharu when he's stopped by the receptionist.
"I'm sorry, Hijikata-sama. We don't allow pets inside." the receptionist tells him with an apologetic tone.
Toshirou stares at the receptionist for a few seconds, and the man shifts nervously.
"This isn't a pet. It's a mascot." Toshirou finally responds. He signals to Sadaharu behind his back, and Sadaharu immediately stands on his two hind legs, placing his front ones on Toshirou's shoulders for balance. Toshirou's knees buckle underneath the weight but Sadaharu bites his head to keep him steady.
"See? I told ya it's a mascot." he says to the receptionist. Then he feels something wet trailing down his face.
"Sir, your head is bleeding." the receptionist looks at the top of his head with terrified eyes.
"Nah, this isn't blood. It's grape juice. He drank some grape juice earlier, that's all." Toshirou calmly tells him. "Now that we've established the fact he's a mascot, can we go in?"
After that, they were all directed to a huge private room that had tables set together to create a bigger one for them to seat around. The Shinsengumi officers sat down, one by one, and started chatting among themselves with excitement. As minutes passed and the waiters started bringing their drinks, they all started getting rowdier and the party slowly set itself in place.
While everyone was drinking and laughing, Toshirou was quietly drinking at the far end of the table with Sadaharu laying down by his side. He was looking at everyone with a small grin on his face. Then out of the corner of his eye, he notices Kondo-san approaching him.
"Ne, Toshi! Is everything ok?" Kondo-san asks him with a beaming smile and flushed cheeks.
"Everything's fine, Kondo-san." Toshirou tells him with a reassuring smile, and watches as Kondo-san flops down onto the ground next to him.
"Then why aren't you celebrating?! It's your birthday, isn't it?"
"You know I never cared much for birthdays, Kondo-san. Besides," Toshirou looks at the drink in his hands, watching the ripples breaking the smooth surface. "I'm just waiting for a couple of sore eyes to come here."
Kondo-san doesn't say anything for a second, and then he chuckles. "Don't worry they'll definitely come."
Toshirou silently agreed with him as he thought about the chaotic trio and the troubles they always brought. Yeah, they'll definitely come, he thinks with a small smile as he brings his drink to his lips. But then Kondo-san's next words make his body freeze.
"After all, even if they got banned from the restaurant, nothing would stop them from coming!"
....What?
"What?"
Kondo looks over at him, finally realizing what he said. He laughs nervously, waving his hands hands at Toshirou,"It's nothing! It's nothing! It's just something that happened a few weeks ago-"
"Kondo-san, I only have one question," Toshirou interjects Kondo-san's rambling, "When did they get banned?"
"...On it's first day opening."
Suddenly the lights in the room dimmed and the occupants in the room let out noises of surprise and confusion. Then Sadaharu starts barking excitedly from his side and Toshirou looks over to see him standing on all fours and staring ahead, his tail wagging furiously. Toshirou turns to see what he was looking at, squinting his eyes in the darkness. Then, the lights came back on and Toshirou's eyes widened when he saw at the far end of the table, something tall covered with cloth was standing, along with two people flanking its sides.
"Here, here! I have an announcement to make!" one of them shouts and Toshirou's jaw drops when he sees it's a badly disguised Kagura with a fake moustache. "I have a present to give to Hijikata Toshirou!"
She reaches a hand to the covered object and pulls down the cloth with a flourish, revealing a huge weirdly square shaped cake. "A Mayo cake!"
"Eh?!"
"Seriously?"
"Is that real?"
Disguised Kagura scowls at them, "Of course it isn't, you morons! Who would bake a mayo cake this huge?! and you call yourselves policemen?!"
The other person, a bespectacled boy, shushes her furiously and pushes her away. Then he turns to the audience smiling nervously.
"A-ah, this is just a box, but the REAL present which is a Mayo cake along with something else, is inside the cake!" he announces loudly, "But I'm afraid the only one that can open this cake is none other than Hijikata Toshirou himself!" Then he looks at Toshirou, beaming at him, "Hijikata-san would you like to open this cake?"
Toshirou stares with his jaw hanging open for a few seconds. Then a hand slaps on his back repeatedly and he looks to see Kondo -san grinning at him while his eyes screamed just do as they say!
"Go on, Toshi!" Kondo-san encourages him, giving him a thumbs up.
"Yes, Vice-chief! Go open it!" Tetsu shouts from the table and everyone else shout in agreement.
Toshirou stands up, and walks around the table to the huge cake. When he reaches it, he awkwardly stands in front of it, not knowing what to do.
"Hijikata-san, you just have to press this button." the bespectacled boy whispers to him. Toshirou doesn't know who he is, but he decides not to ponder on it for now.
He raises a hand and then presses the button with his finger, then he quickly pulls back and waits with anticipation, expecting Gintoki to pop out with a cake.
....
.........
Nothing happened.
Toshirou pressed the button and waits for a few seconds again. When nothing happened, he presses it again. and again. and again.
"Is he even pressing it?" a familiar voice whispers from inside the cake.
"I am pressing it!" Toshirou explodes and then starts punching the button furiously.
"Hijikata-san, calm down!" the bespectacled boy tells him with a nervous look in his eyes, "It's alright, you did nothing wrong. There's probably something wrong with the button-" he gets cut off when someone suddenly grabs his arms. It was one of the staff, scowling at the boy.
"Sir, I'll need you to leave this place at once."
"W-wait!-" the boy protests and tries to free himself from the tight grip. Toshirou doesn't know why, but something twists inside of him as he looks at the boy getting dragged and treated roughly. Deciding he had enough, he grabs the man pulling the bespectacled boy by his shoulder.
"Let him go. He can stay."
The man looks at him with surprise. "But Hijikata-sama," he protests but shuts his mouth when Toshirou gives him a glare.
"Go."
The man quietly obeys and leaves the private room, Toshirou's eyes followed his back until it disappeared. Then he looks at Kagura that was knocking on the cake and walks over to her.
"You, I want to talk to you." he sternly tells her, then he turns to look at everyone else and they immediately straighten their backs. "Everyone, I want you to try and see what's wrong with this thing, understood?"
"Yes, Vice-chief!"
Toshirou grabs Kagura's hand and drags her with him to a corner of the room, and he doesn't know why, but for some reason the boy follows them. Well, he doesn't care right now. Right now, all he can think about is-
"I have so many questions, but first of all, how the hell did you get banned from this restaurant?!"
"Gurako doesn't know what you're talking about." Kagura tells him while fiddling with her moustache, "Gurako is just doing a delivery job."
The bespectacled boy sighs. "Kagura-chan, you don't have to act anymore. We didn't even disguise ourselves properly. All you did was wear a moustache while I changed my glasses." he says that as he pulled off his glasses, then puts on another pair and....
"Seriously, what was Gin-san even thinking?" Shinpachi asks exasperatedly, but Toshirou didn't say anything and stared at him with shock.
"What? Why are you looking at me like that?" Shinpachi asks him with confusion.
"No reason," Toshirou clears his throat, "It's, uh, good to see you Shinpachi."
Shinpachi looks at him questionably for a few seconds, then it changes into disbelief. "Don't tell me you seriously didn't recognize me?!"
Thankfully, he gets saved by Yamazaki calling out to him. "Vice-chief, I found another button here."
"Press it then!"
Yamazaki does as he said, then something dark spurts out of the cake.
"What the hell?!"
"...Is that soy sauce?"
After he learned that Gengai was the one who made the cake machine or whatever, Toshirou decides to go outside of the restaurant and to give Gengai a call.
"Hah? Who's this? You better have a good reason calling me!" a voice slurs out of the phone.
"Gengai-san, it's me, Hijikata Toshirou."
There was a pause before a cheer was heard through the phone. "Eheh! Vice-commander, how are you on this fine evening? Tell me, did you like your present?"
"Ah- I do- it's just- stuck inside the box."
"Eh? It's stuck inside the box?"
"Yeah."
Gengai hums thoughtfully through the phone. "Well, it's a good thing I made that backup plan!" he said cheerfully, "Just tell Ginnoji to press the blue button on the controller I gave him."
"Wait, you're not coming to fix it?!"
"Nope, I'm busy. But good luck! And happy birthday!"
Gintoki doesn't know what he did wrong. He seriously doesn't. So why is he receiving a punishment like this? He feels like he's gonna die if this continues any longer. He can already feel his muscles cramping in the small space, his mind getting heavy as he tried to breathe tightly closed room. He looks down at the cake in his hands and notices that the icing, much to his annoyance, is starting to melt. This really sucked.
"This is what happens when you let a teenage girl write this story. Especially one that sleeps for four hours at night." Gintoki grumbles to himself, but Shinpachi, who was standing outside, hears him.
"I hope she's okay. It's not healthy to neglect herself." Shinpachi's worried voice comes through the metal walls, irking Gintoki's nerves.
"Who cares about her?! I'm the one stuck inside a cake!"
"Gin-san how can you say that?! Plus, if you say things like that, the author will punish you!"
"I'm being punished right now for no reason!" Gintoki cries out then groans with frustration, "Aaah, forget it! What're the others doing?"
"Well, Okita-san told me he's brainstorming with others on how to get you out." Shinpachi tells him, but there was doubt in his voice. "I'm going to see what they came up with so far."
Meanwhile at another corner of the room, was Sougo standing in front of the whole Shinsengumi troops with a white board and a marker in his hands.
"Alright, that's seven votes for the fire idea." Sougos announced, writing down on the white board. "So far, the 20 swords is in the lead, the second being to drop it from 30 meters high, the third is that we bathe it on fire and the last is the road roller." he turns to look at Kondo that was standing by his side, "Kondo-san, what do you think we should do?"
Kondo looks thoughtful for a moment. Then looks over at Sougo with a serious expression. "I think we should do all of them in the exact order!" He declared loudly and the whole Shinsengumi officers cheered.
"Let's take revenge for the Vice-chief's chastity!"
"It's about time we made that Yorozuya pay for laying his dirty hands on our Vice-chief!"
Shinpacho who was right behind them, looks at them with horror as they cheered.
When Toshirou arrives outside of the private room and pushes the doors open, he's met by a sight like this.
Everyone from the Shinsengumi had formed a circle around the Yorozuya quartet, while Kagura, Sadaharu and Shinpachi were all defensively standing around the cake.
"Square up, you mofos. I'll beat you all up so hard you'll go crying to your mami!" Kagura spats at them while waving her fists at them.
"China, we just want to get Danna outta there, don't you want that?" Sougo drawls with a bored look.
"What you guys are trying to do is kill him! And there's no way I'll let you do that before Gin-chan gives me my payment!"
"Who's side are you on?!" Gintoki and Shinpachi both scream at her.
Toshirou snaps out of his shock and shouts at them. "What the hell is going on here?!"
Everyone turned and saw him standing by the doorway.
"A-ah, Toshi, this is, uh," Kondo-san stammered, "We can definitely explain this."
"We're taking revenge on Danna for taking your chastity." Sougo deadpans and Kondo-san spluttered. Toshirou stares at them blankly for a moment before muttering, "I don't even wanna know." then stomps towards the cake.
"Oi, asshole-"
"Why hello to you too, darling." Gintoki sarcastically replies, but Toshirou could hear that his voice was strained.
"Old man Gengai told me he gave you a controller unless things didn't work out?"
"Yeah! Yeah! I have it here, wait-" there was a sound of shuffling inside the cake, "Ok, now what?"
"Press the blue button."
"...What blue button?"
"What other buttons are there, Yorozuya?!"
"There's tons of buttons here, asshole! There's a power button, a volume button, and a channel...button." Gintoki trails off. "Oh..."
"What 'Oh'?" Toshirou spats out, his eyes wildly trying to look inside the cake and at the idiot sitting in there.
"I might've grabbed the wrong controller."
There was a moment of silence. Then Kagura sighs loudly and shakes her head.
"Guess I have no choice then." Kagura says nonchalantly, and starts stretching her arms while walking a few feet away from them.
"What're you doing?" Toshirou asked her warily and Kagura stopped in her trek. Then she turns around and gives him a wild grin.
"We wasted enough time. Let the queen handle this, yes?"
At those words, dread pools in Toshirou's stomach.
"Wait, Kagura-"
Kagura doesn't listen and takes a running start towards the cake, and everyone immediately dive out of her way. When she's near the cake, she jumps up with a shout and delivers a strong flying kick to the cake. The cake flies in the sky for a moment before crashing down. The top lid of the cake finally pops open and Sakata Gintoki rolls out. Without a thought, Toshirou runs to where Gintoki was laying down with his ass in the air, and the rest of the night was history.
The first thing Gintoki woke up to was beeping sounds.
Gintoki slowly opens his eyes. Then he blinks them once, then twice, as his vision gets accustomed to the bright lights shining over head. He looks around the room he's residing in, and his eyes slide over to his bedside and sees an IV stand along with a Hijikata Toshirou sitting by his bedside.
"Yo."
Gintoki looks at Toshirou for a few seconds, and bit by bit, starts remembering what happened. He realizes that he basically ruined his boyfriend's birthday, and he doesn't know if this is the moment where he says one of his usual witty remarks, or if he apologises. It's probably the second one. But just as Gintoki opens his mouth to apologize, Toshirou interjects.
"It was too sweet."
What?
"What?" Gintoki asked stupidly.
Toshirou lets out a huff before continuing, "The mayo cake. The one you made. It was too sweet."
Gintoki doesn't say anything for a few seconds as his mind tries to comprehend what Toshirou said.
"What the hell asshole? I almost died while trying to give you that cake and you're complaining?" he rants with indignation, But then Toshirou chuckles. Gradually his chuckles increased in volume until he was fully laughing. Gintoki stares at Toshirou laughing with wonder, then he joins him and starts chuckling.
After a while, they both stop laughing and quietly look at each other.
"Sorry. About tonight."
"It's ok." Toshirous paused then added, "It was fun."
"Seriously?"
"Yeah. This wouldn't be Gintama if it didn't have a couple of screw ups." Toshirou smirks at him and Gintoki lets out an affronted 'Oi'.
"It's a shame though, I wanted to have fun with you tonight."
Toshirou raises a curious eyebrow at him. "Oh? Then what would you do if this didn't all happen?"
Gintoki turns to look at the ceiling thoughtfully, "Well, lets see, my original plan was to pop out of the cake with your Mayo cake while you looked at me with hearts in your eyes, then we all would've eaten your disgusting cake, have some drinks, get smashed,"
"Oi-"
"Then Kagura and Shinpachi would go to Shinpachi's house."
A pause.
"Oh?" Toshirou said, trying not to look too interested.
"And we would've gone back to ours."
"No shit, Sherlock. What would we do when we get back home?"
"Patience, Hijikata-kun." Gintoki wags a finger in Toshirou's face and Toshirou scowls. Gintoki smirks back at him, looking at him mischievously with his dead fish eyes.
"Well, I'd give you your real birthday present of course."
"...What's the present?"
"Nothing much. A pair of handcuffs."
"Oi-"
"Not for you, idiot. For me." Gintoki rolls his eyes then he puts his arms behind his head. "I thought since you like catching Joi rebels, we'd do an interrogation," he pauses "As Oni-no-fukucho and Shiroyasha."
Toshirou's eyes widen at first, then they darken, staring at Gintoki with arousal. His tongue darts out to wet his lips and Gintoki's eyes follow the action, as he feels his own arousal pooling in his stomach.
But suddenly a loud alarm starts blaring.
"What the fuck-"
Error! Error!
Device is crashing. The system will shut down in one minute and thirty seconds. One minute and twenty-nine seconds. One minute and twenty-eight.
"...Are you kidding me?!" Gintoki screeched. He whips his head to Toshirou, then jumps out the hospital bed. He drops onto his knees in front of Toshirou and then flips back his yukata to reveal his mayo boxers.
"What the- what the hell are you doing?!" Toshirou yells at him and grabs his wrists to prevent him from pulling down his mayo boxers.
"It’s ok, we did it in five minutes before! We can beat that record!" Gintoki responds back hurriedly, tugging his hands to break them free and when he does, he wastes no time to pull down those boxers.
"What are you, an idiot?!"
Speeding up the time limit.
Thirty seconds. Twenty five seconds. Fourteen seconds. Eight seconds-
"ARE YOU FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"
"Serves you right, asshole." a girl mutters while closing her laptop, then slumps down her chair and falls on the floor. She lays down on her back for a moment, staring at her ceiling blankly.
"I want strawberry shortcake." she mumbled before closing her eyes and drifting off to sleep.